This week’s MySpace trawl through the vastness of rubbish music leads us to Seattle, Washington where we have discovered Marshall Watson.
It may same as strange to you as it does to us, but an American making electronic music? Crikey, who would have thought that happened over there? Here at hecklerspray towers, we all just assumed that our buddies across the pond just listened to the Dixie Chicks, 50 Cent and Beyonce. Looks like we’re wrong again. Like usual.
The first thing that strikes us whilst we listen to Marshall Watson’s grooves are that they are so refreshingly calm and chilled. Gone are the days when the terms dance or electronic music meant that there had to a pounding beat that would make you feel that you’d been banging your head off a wall for three hours.
Marshall Watson music is the opposite of the traditional headbanging music. It’s perfect for putting on in the background and chilling out to as the warm melodies like An Evolution Of Sorts drifts over you, with some minimal beats flowing underneath. It’s the perfect sort of music to throw on after a night out and relax to. Up on Marshall Watson's MySpace page are four tasty treats for you to check out, each track paints its own picture of beauty with sounds ranging from minimal ambiance to subtle beats, calming vocals and glitches. We grabbed a quick word with Marshall Watson on all matter of things:
Making electronic music in America! We didn't think that the kids over their listened to that. How is electronic music received in America? Is it better in some parts of the country then others?
Well. I don't know if I can speak for all Americans, but there are certainly hotspots where electronic music appears to work better than others. Seattle has a really happening EM scene. Decibel fest has gotten some really nice attention, and the line-up this year is going to be amazing. I would say that Seattle, San Francisco, Chicago, Vancouver (BC), and a tiny population of NYC are all pretty open to EM. As Americans, we have our own brand of EM… most of it is garbage, but there are some really great indie artists out there. Mossyrock, here on MySpace is a great example, completely unknown, but touring the US anyway, and they are really good. Quantazelle in Chicago is also doing some nice work.
Who are you inspirations for making the music that you do?
Hmm. I’d say early on, Depeche Mode and New Order. A lot of bands have influenced me. I still LOVE Underworld. I love the morr music sound (even though some say its dying). I love music that I can't figure out at first. When I’m like "how in the hell did they MAKE that!?" – Those are the ones that are inspiring. Actually, as far as techno goes, I saw Dean Decosta play a show in Seattle several years ago, (I actually opened for him) – and his set blew me away. He was playing Luciano and Stewart Walker, this deep shit to a crowd of about seven. And we were all loving it. That show changed how I thought about techno production.
Lots of people assume that making electronic music can be done by just punching a few keys on a keyboard, what equipment/software do you use to create your sounds?
Ha-ha. I love that. "Techno isn't music." I use a combination of analogue and digital gear. Here's the list: Roland Juno 106, Korg Microkorg ,Korg Kaoss pad, iBook ,Powermac G5, Absynth, Battery, Reaktor, Ableton live 5, Peak Edit Le, Two Controllers, Two Soundcards, KRK monitors and sub, Big Mixer, Couple of hard drives, Midi interface and a Minidisk recorder.
What’s your favourite ice-cream flavour?
Pistachio.
Is the whole MySpace boom helping out artists like yourselves in promoting your music?
I think so. Since I’ve put music up there, I’ve gotten nearly 3000 listens, which is more than the first pressing of my first album. I’m about to start using a company called EchoSpin, that will allow me to sell my music directly from MySpace. The combination of the two, theoretically, might actually make me a dollar or two. So yes. MySpace is good.
From browsing around your site, we've noticed you've released an album on the UK label, High Point Lowlife, do you have any more releases planned?
Yes. I have another album about to be released on HPLL. Any day now, actually. It will be called Math and Other Word Problems. My good friend Yannick Joubert did my artwork again. That lovely man. And Thorsten at HPLL is amazing as well. I love that little label. You should definitely check out their catalogue. The village orchestra is amazing. And I do have SOME stuff out in America. The label, subvariant (Chicago) released a really nice little comp last year called Subvaritrax which I contributed some music to. That’s run by Quantazelle – a very busy girl who makes some pretty darn good electronic music. And actually, there are a couple of comps that I’m contributing to at the moment. 442 music in Australia is releasing a comp called Pop Songs for Edith Metzger that I have a tune on. Also, experimedia.net recently release an online comp called The Rhythm Method – that's the first techno song I’ve contributed to anyone. There’s other small stuff in the works, but too early to say. I’ll be composing some ambient music for an art gallery opening in September, and I’m also playing a live show here in Seattle in July.
So is this the way forward in terms of modern electronic music? We’d like to think so. In Marshall’s music, we can hear hints of Boards of Canada and elements of other ambient acts like Lemon Jelly and Bonobo which are already popular artists in their own right.
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[story by Matthew Laidlow]
Dean DeCosta says
Thanks for the kind words Marshall! I am honored :)